


A Brief Intermission

by violasarecool



Series: What Can 8 Grey Wardens Do? [17]
Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Alternate Origin Story, Brief injury mention, Demigirl, Dwarf Appreciation Week (Dragon Age), F/F, Gen, Highever, Nonbinary Character, Other, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-06 10:05:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11598366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violasarecool/pseuds/violasarecool
Summary: when Talia Cousland is injured during the fighting in Highever, she and the two other new recruits, Ketkoni Brosca and Dwinna Aeducan, get separated from Duncan. they bring her to a healer in the village, where they stay while she heals Talia, a brief intermission from their journey to become wardens.or, possibly not so brief.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> if you havent read the previous parts, this is part of my au where each of the warden origins live. bit of backstory for what happened before these three made it to Amaranthine. posted for dwarf appreciation week, day 2 - warden appreciation.
> 
> Ketkoni's a demigirl (she/they), Dwinna's a trans woman (she), Talia's a cis woman (she). mentioned a bit in the second chapter.

Ketkoni woke to the sound of shuffling feet.

For a moment, she thought they were still in Castle Cousland; she opened her eyes a fraction, wondering if they were going to be robbed. Nobles sending their servants to do their dirty work? In the darkened room, she made out the silhouette of a man, treading carefully around the table in the middle of the room. Light trickled in from the window on the far wall, illuminating the prone figure on the table— _oh._ And it all came rushing back: the attack on the castle, losing Duncan in the fray, the human recruit losing an arm, taking a blade to the side. Carrying her into the village below, badly wounded.

Ketkoni noticed a weight pressed against their side; Dwinna lay asleep, sprawled against their legs, using their side as a pillow. Ketkoni smiled as they moved quietly to check that their few possessions were still there—the healer and her husband seemed inoffensive, but you never knew.

They let their eyes open fully, taking in the room. The man, Alistair, was sorting through a pile of cloth of some kind, maybe small pouches? It was hard to tell from where they lay on the floor, with no cushioning to elevate them besides a few blankets. The human recruit's mabari, however, was just at eye level, and as the healer—Sophie, she'd said—passed its huddled form under the table a moment later, Ketkoni silently thanked the ancestors it was still asleep. Being slobbered all over by a creature that could rear up a good two feet taller than her was an experience she wasn't particularly eager to repeat.

Ketkoni gave the couple another cautious look, before reaching over to gently nudge Dwinna. "Hey you," they murmured. Dwinna made a soft grumbling noise, and Ketkoni stifled the urged to laugh. "Wake _up_."

Dwinna opened her eyes slowly, squinting at Ketkoni. "Huh?" she said blearily.

"Shh." Ketkoni glanced over at the couple, still absorbed in their conversation. "I need to talk to you." When Dwinna didn't make any reply, Ketkoni sighed, tugging the blankets off them, then carefully got to her feet, pulling Dwinna with them. As they half-dragged Dwinna toward the door, Alistair glanced their way; Ketkoni held up her index finger in what they hoped was a gesture also used by humans.  _Just a moment._

Possibly a very long moment.

They stepped out into the street and were immediately assaulted by light. "Ortan's teeth," Dwinna muttered, squinting at the brightly lit street. "My eyes are on fire."

"Yeah, I'm still not a fan of this 'sun' thing," Ketkoni said, though she couldn't help grinning at Dwinna's groggy expression. "Ok, are you awake now? Are you gonna remember what I'm saying?"

Dwinna yawned widely. "Unfortunately."

"Wow," Ketkoni said, eyebrows raised. Dwinna stared at her, brain visibly struggling to kick into gear. "You hate listening to me talk that much?" Ketkoni attempted. "Nevermind. Listen, we should go."

"Wait, what?" Dwinna said, and _now_ she looked more awake—though even more confused. "Go where?"

" _Go,_ leave, catch up with the Wardens.We got the human here, the other human's gonna heal her; we're done, yeah?"

Dwinna frowned, shook her head. "We can't just _leave_ Talia here."

"Can't just leave her _with a healer?"_ Ketkoni gestured at the open window, where, inside, the couple stood beside Talia once more. The woman, Sophie, was directing her partner Alistair in applying some sort of salve to Talia's side, motioning as she talked with the small stump that was the only remnant of either of her arms. "Look," Ketkoni said impatiently, "we're just in their way now, and the Grey Wardens are getting further away every day. Face it, Dwinna, she's not gonna be a Warden. It's time for us to go."

Dwinna gave them a reproachful look. "Ket, look at them: their house only has one room, one bed. They barely had enough food to share with us yesterday. I don't think they can afford to support another person."

"What would you know about that?" Ketkoni retorted.

Dwinna opened her mouth, closed it again with a sigh. "Am I wrong?" she asked, with an apologetic expression that sent a twist of guilt through Ketkoni's gut.

_Dammit_. "No..."

"We have to help," Dwinna said softly. "And you," her expression took on a playfully stubborn look, "aren't fooling _anyone_ with that 'I don't give a damn' attitude."

"I'll give you one damn, but that's about it," Ketkoni sniffed. Dwinna raised her eyebrows, and Ketkoni let out a low groan of defeat." _Ugh,_ why do you have to be so damn selfless? We could be fighting shit in proper armour, and you want to pick up odd jobs in some tiny human village."

"It's still better than Orzammar," Dwinna said with a small smile.

Ketkoni made a groaning noise, punched Dwinna gently on the arm. "You can't say things like that, I feel like I'm being manipulated here," they said, but they leaned in to give Dwinna a kiss.

Dwinna smiled into the kiss, opened her eyes to look up at Ketkoni as she leaned back. "By being happy?"

Ketkoni narrowed their eyes. "Maybe."

Dwinna laughed. "Alright," she said, linking her fingers in Ketkoni's. "But, hey," she said, nudging Ketkoni with her arm, "why are you complaining about missing the Wardens _now?_ You've said you'd rather be back with the Carta at _least_ four times since we left."

"Don't use my own words against me," Ketkoni complained. "Maybe I just like the idea of doing something different for once. No _Beraht_ for one thing."

"True."

The door to the house opened, and Alistair ducked outside, shoulders bowed so he wouldn't hit his head on the doorframe. "Sorry to interrupt, but, could I, uh, ask you to run down to the market and pick up a few things?" He held held up a pouch that clinked in his large, green-stained hands. "We're running out of some herbs, and Sophie needs me here right now."

Ketkoni took the pouch, glanced at him with a frown. "Can't she just do a spell or someth—"

Alistair coughed loudly. He leaned forward, his towering bulk enormous against the two small dwarves. "Ever since the night the fighting at the castle started, there's been a group of Templars hanging around," he murmured, rubbing a hand up the side of his thick beard. "It was risky enough doing what little she did when you first got here. I'm sorry, your friend may take a long time to heal."

"Right." Ketkoni closed their hand over the small pouch with a sigh. "Alright. Tell us what you need."

"We're running low on sage and spindleroot, and—"

"Alistair!" There came a call from inside the house.

"Just a moment," he said, backing through the door into the house. Ketkoni glanced at Dwinna, then shrugged and followed him back inside.

It had been, well, all night since Talia's wounds were bleeding in earnest, but now that they were re-entering the room, they could still smell the faint tang of blood. Sophie stood on the far side of the room, holding a carved stick of wood in her mouth to sort through a pile of reddish leaves. She glanced up, noting Alistair, and dropped the tool in the pouch at the front of her shirt. "Maker, those Templars can't leave soon enough," Sophie sighed, stepping back towards the table with a clunk of her thick, wood-soled boots. "I need your hands."

Talia lay on the table in the middle of the room, chest gently rising and falling under a light blanket, her wounded left side exposed to the air. As Alistair moved around to her other side, Ketkoni was struck once more by how _clean_ their little house was. Where the floors and walls in her old home in Dust Town were blackened with the same grime that clung to her clothes and hands, Talia's skin was starkly clean, leaving nothing to disguise the sickly pale colour.

And in filthy, crowded Dust Town, dwarves died from wounds like Talia's.

"Hold on," Sophie said, and everyone in the room looked her way. "I really need more spindleroot _now,"_ she said, frowning. "Dwinna, was it? And..."

"Ketkoni." Ketkoni stepped further into the room, and there was a low whine as the mabari clambered out from under the table, staring at them dolefully.  _Of course the damn thing's awake now._

"Yes. Did Alistair tell you what else we need?"

"I was just starting to when you called," Alistair said with a wry smile.

"Sorry, love," Sophie said, eyes crinkling in amusement. "Fetch me a wet cloth, would you?" Alistair moved away, and she turned back to the dwarves. "I need spindleroot, garlic, sage, mint, and _royal_ elfroot, not bitter, there's an elven woman, Tabitha, who sells it by the armoury. Repeat that back to me."

Dwinna gave Ketkoni an anxious look, clearly lost; Ketkoni, who was used to keeping track of heaps of illicit merchandise, nodded. "Spindleroot, garlic, sage, mint, and royal elfroot from an elf named Tabitha. Hope your merchants aren't swindlers, though, because I have _no_ idea what any of that is."

Sophie shook her head. "It shouldn't be a problem. Oh, and take the dog, would you? It keeps getting between me and your friend," she said, giving the dog an exasperated look.

As Sophie began directing Alistair once more, Dwinna held out a hand to the dog, who immediately trotted over to sniff her. "Good girl, Nidi," she murmured, and Ketkoni was struck by the image of a young Dwinna doing the same to an enormous nug. _Oh boy._ Stone knew why the upper castes insisted on playing with their food.

Dwinna started out the door, giving the dog a gentle push as it hesitated in the doorway; but Ketkoni didn't move, eyes caught on Talia's prone form. "Is she gonna be ok?" she asked.

"Hard to say right now," Sophie said, watching Alistair's careful motions with a light frown. "The wound on her thigh wasn't too deep, so if it heals cleanly, she _should_ be able to walk without a limp. And her arm—"

"But she'll live?" Ketkoni interrupted.

Sophie glanced up, face clearing. "Oh, yes. Even if I don't get the chance to give her a little more magical help in the next week, she'll live."

"Oh," Ketkoni said. Dwinna was watching her now, and she gave Sophie a brisk nod before following Dwinna out the door. _She won't die. That's... good._

If her relief was visible on her face, Dwinna didn't mention it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> time for the trio (& dog) to finally leave highever

Eventually, the Templars left, and Sophie felt safe using magic once more, speeding Talia's recovery, and filling the house with vines that surged through holes in the floor boards to fetch whatever Sophie needed. (Nidi was _not impressed)._ They saw soldiers in the village, sometimes, whose heraldry Talia identified as that of the invading soldiers when they described it to her, so Talia stayed inside even as she began to grow stronger. Ketkoni and Dwinna sometimes kept her company, telling her about what they saw in the village while they worked.

Talia never mentioned the family she'd lost, so neither Ketkoni nor Dwinna brought it up. Equally, Talia seemed to politely avoid mentioning anything about Orzammar, so they spent much of the time skirting around their respective pasts. Though by the time Sophie declared Talia fit to travel, Ketkoni was about ready to pin her down and force her to talk about what happened at the Castle if it'd only give them something new to talk about.

Thank the ancestors they were finally leaving.

"Head south until you reach the Imperial Highway," Sophie said as they shouldered their packs that morning, so early that the sun hadn't even begun to rise. A cloak of darkness to cover their escape. "Then follow the road east, and continue south by the lake. If your friends are still heading north, you might even meet them on the road."

They'd heard reports of Grey Wardens near Lake Calenhad from passing merchants. Of course, they could be miles away by now. But it was all they had to go on.

"Thank you," Talia said, "we really appreciate everything you've done for us." Ketkoni and Dwinna murmured their agreement.

Sophie smiled. "You're very welcome."

They turned to leave, and Talia clicked her tongue at her mabari. "Come, Nidi." She reached up with the stump of her left arm before catching herself, and quickly switched to her right arm, tugging her hood down over her face as she stepped out into the street.

The couple didn't follow them outside, though Ketkoni was sure they were watching from the window. The street was empty, as they'd expected, and they walked as quickly as they dared without attracting the attention of anyone who might have been watching. Nidi kept close to Talia's side, oddly subdued, as if the mabari knew that silence was essential. 

They made it out of the village without incident, then down through neighbouring farms. Talia knew enough of the area that her confidence gradually began to affect the others, and by the time the sun began its climb into the sky, Ketkoni was feeling positively cheerful. They were alive, they'd made it out of Highever; they had packs full of food, some leftover coin from their work in the village, and with luck, they'd catch up with the Wardens soon enough that they'd still accept them into their ranks.

_Maybe the surface isn't so bad,_ Ketkoni thought, blinking as a cool breeze tickled her face.

* * *

Of course, the surface was desperate to prove them wrong.

"Come on, Ket," Dwinna called.

"Just... give me a moment," Ketkoni said. They were stopped in front of a tall cliff, the others already on the bridge across the river below—if you could even c _all_ it a bridge. It was made of little more than wood and rope— _rope! How does it even stay up??_ Nidi bounded past the others, sending the bridge swaying, and Ketkoni grimaced, taking deliberate steps back from the edge.

"Are you afraid of heights?" Talia asked, supressing a smile.

"No!" Ketkoni snapped. She glanced at the bridge again, then down at the churning water below. "I just don't trust a rickety bridge this far from the stone."

"Hey, it's ok," Talia said, "dwarves probably don't experience this a lot, right?"

"We have bridges," Dwinna said, amused, "huge stone bridges over giant channels of lava."

"Not the same," Ketkoni gritted out.

"True, our workmanship is far better." She took a few steps back toward Ketkoni, held out a hand. "Come on, we have to get across somehow."

"I don't need you to hold my hand," they spat.

"Aaand romance is dead," Dwinna said, grabbing Ketkoni's hand before they could pull away.

"Good riddance," Ketkoni muttered, but they gripped Dwinna's hand tightly.

"Is... is Orzammar not very flat, then?" Talia asked hesitantly, as they began to make their way across the bridge. "I'd always imagined the caverns to be filled with low buildings."

"Depends where you look," Dwinna said, "and I guess it also depends what you mean. Buildings in the diamond quarter tend to have only one floor, but the halls are twice as high as the human floors I've seen."

"Not in dust town," Ketkoni muttered, eyes fixed suspiciously on Nidi, who'd stopped at the end of the bridge, head cocked. "No room for that kind of rich shit."

Nidi, impatient for them to reach her, began trotting back across the bridge, and Ketkoni froze as the bridge began swaying back and forth. Talia glanced at Ketkoni, then raised a hand toward her mabari. "Nidi, go wait for us at the end of the bridge," she called. Nidi gave a huff of annoyance, but turned back, tail drooping. "Oh, you're fine, you big baby." Talia muttered. "Sorry," she added to Ketkoni. "Go on?"

Ketkoni glanced at Dwinna. "Mm, there's also the towers," Dwinna said, "huge and carved out of the stone itself, so even though they're so high, you're still connected to the stone. That's how they built the proving grounds," she added, "I love it there, the halls are beautiful." She was quiet for a moment, eyes fixed on a distant point ahead. "I guess we'll never see it again, though."

"I'm sorry," Talia said.

Dwinna shook her head. "Don't be. Honestly, Duncan recruiting me was the best thing that could have happened. Well," she smiled ruefully, "if we hadn't been separated, anyway."

"You weren't happy in Orzammar?" Talia asked, as they reached the other end of the bridge.

Before Dwinna could answer, Ketkoni pushed past in one last frantic rush for solid ground. "Sweet earth," they murmured, flopping down to lie flat against the ground. Moments later, Nidi bounded over, nudging their head with her wet nose. " _No,_ get off you giant nug," Ketkoni groaned, pushing her head away. Dwinna stifled a giggle.

"Um." Dwinna glanced back at Talia, trying to catch her thoughts. "Oh. Well, my family weren't happy with me?" She shrugged awkwardly. "I didn't exactly _tell_ them I was a woman, but given how they reacted to me _shaving my face,_ I don't think they'd have taken it well."

"I've heard dwarves can be very tradition-bound," Talia said cautiously.

Dwinna snorted. "You don't know half of it. It's a miracle Bhelen even..." She faltered, glanced down. "He _did_ accept me, for the longest time."

"Bhelen's a dick," Ketkoni said, sitting up.

"I tried to tell you about him, and you didn't even know there were three royal children," Dwinna said, eyes narrowed, though her mouth twitched up at the side.

"Yeah, but he pinned a murder on you, right? So..." Ketkoni shrugged. "Dick material. Don't need to know any more than that."

Talia laughed, and Dwinna shook her head, smiling. "Uh huh. Come on, you, we should keep moving."

"I just got done crossing the world's most _badly built_ bridge, I think I deserve a break," Ketkoni complained, but she hauled herself to her feet, falling into rhythm with them as they began walking.

After a few moments, Ketkoni looked over at Talia. "So, what about you?"

Talia glanced at them, nonplussed. "What _about_ me?"

"Now you know what _our_ shitty underground city is like; what was it like for you back home?"

"Well, you've seen the village, you even stayed in the castle for a night. What else do you want to know?" Talia asked.

"Ok," Ketkoni said, fixing her with a pensive look, "was your dad as much of a hardass as he seemed?" Talia choked on an intake of breath, and started coughing. "Because he seemed like a bit of a hardass."

"For the paragons' sakes, Ket," Dwinna said, giving Talia a worried glance.

Ketkoni watched as Talia's coughing subsided into subdued silence. "I don't know how I'm supposed to answer that," Talia finally said, reaching down to rub Nidi's head. "I wouldn't use quite those words, regardless," she added, with an attempt at a smile, though it didn't reach her eyes. "He was protective of me, yes, perhaps a bit _over_ protective of me due to Duncan's presence. But family's important, and he didn't want to lose me to an organization known for being dangerous and reclusive."

"I'd appreciate it if they were a bit _less_ reclusive," Ketkoni complained.

"Mm." Talia smiled at Ketkoni's disgusted expression, which Ketkoni seemed to take as a cue to continue.

"I mean, you'd think they would leave some way of finding them in case something ever happened like, oh, you know, most of the Grey Wardens get _killed._ Surprise, when you fight, people die!"

"Are there more Wardens, another group somewhere else?" Dwinna asked Talia.

Talia shrugged. "I think so, but it makes more sense to find the Wardens we know, than travelling all the way to Orlais."

"Orlais is far from here?"

"Pretty far."

"And we've got no proof we were recruited," Ketkoni said.

"True."

They walked in silence for a moment, feet falling heavily on the parched ground. "How long will it take for the Blight to spread, up here?" Dwinna asked. "The Deep Roads are a like maze, we can use tunnels and choke points to hold off the Darkspawn even in large numbers. But up here," she gestured at the flat grassy land ahead of them, "it's all open. How long do we have?"

"I don't know," Talia said, shaking her head. "Not long enough."


End file.
